Puntland radio station hit by grenade attack

New York, October
19, 2011--The Committee to Protect Journalists condemns Tuesday's grenade attack
on a Puntland radio station and calls for authorities to take immediate steps
to identify and prosecute the perpetrators. This was the third local radio
station hit with a blast in three months, CPJ research showed.

On Tuesday evening, a grenade was hurled into the studios of Radio Galkayo, a community radio station covering local news and current affairs based in the city of Galkayo in the semi-autonomous region of Puntland. The blast destroyed the back wall and a window to the office of Managing Director Abdullahi Hersi, local reports said. No one was hurt in the attack, but the station's staff was working in fear, the reports said. In January 2010, Radio Galkayo was damaged by a grenade that destroyed one studio and a roof, local journalists said.

"This is the second grenade
attack against Radio Galkayo since last year and represents a clear attempt to
intimidate the station into silence," said CPJ East Africa Consultant Tom
Rhodes. "Authorities must make genuine efforts to look into this string of
attacks and bring the perpetrators to justice."

A total of four
grenade attacks against Puntland-based radio stations have occurred since 2010,
according to CPJ research. In October 2010, unknown assailants threw
a grenade at the private broadcaster Horseed
FM. In August, unidentified assailants threw a grenade at Radio
Daljir. Earlier in May, an unexploded bomb was found in front of Radio
Daljir's gate, the Somali journalists' union reported.

Working conditions
for journalists in Puntland have been extremely dangerous recently, CPJ
research shows. On September 14, unknown assailants shot Radio Galkayo
journalist Horroyo Abdulkadir
four times after she left the station. On September 22, unidentified gunmen shot
Radio Codka Nabdda (Voice of Peace) reporter Hassan Mohamed Ali twice at a tea shop
just outside the station, local journalists told CPJ. Both journalists are
receiving treatment for severe injuries.

In a September press
release, Puntland's Ministry of Security blamed a wave of assassinations
and bombings gripping the region since 2006 on the hard-line Islamist militant
group Al-Shabaab. More than 30 public figures, including community leaders,
intellectuals, and officials, have been assassinated in the violence since
2008, according to local news
reports.